The Most Common Business Emergencies and What You Can Do

No one wants to find themselves dealing with a crisis related to their business, but sometimes life happens, even when we took precautions. When you find yourself in an emergency situation, the most important thing is that you take steps right away to try and diffuse the situation. Here are the most common business emergencies and what you can do to solve them.

You’ve Lost – Or At Least Think That You’ve Lost – Important Data

Data is the heart and soul of just about every business. Without data, your business cannot function. When you think that you’ve lost important data, it can feel like not only the end of your company, but the end of the world.

The first step is not to panic, no matter how difficult that might feel when it seems like your whole organization is crumbling. Instead, stay calm and stop trying to recover the data on your own, unless you have extensive IT experience. Call a company that specializes in data recovery and get your devices to them as soon as possible. When it comes to a data crash, time is of the essence. Calling the professionals as soon as possible is typically the secret to getting your important data back.

An Employee Has Called Out Sick On An Important Day

When you have a huge sales day coming up, the last thing you want to be is short-staffed. However, sometimes employees get sick or have family emergencies. Employees are entitled to take sick days, even when it’s inconvenient to the business.

You might feel tempted to lash out at the employee for calling out sick during what feels like such an important time for your company, but resist this urge. If the employee is genuinely ill or going through a crisis, they will interpret this as incredibly insulting. Instead, try to figure out which employees can come in to cover the slack. Offer incentives, be it a cash reward or additional paid time off for them to use down the road.

If you suspect that your employee isn’t really ill or in the middle of an emergency, you might want to sit down and talk with them when they eventually return to work. Just remain calm and levelheaded. Managing your staff should never be about losing your temper or making wild accusations. Instead, it should be about being reasonable, measured and fair.

Your Bookkeeping Is Wrong

If you’ve been looking at your company’s financial records and none of the numbers make sense, it’s normal for your mind to start racing with myriad possibilities of what exactly went wrong. From employee theft to fraud to simple errors, there are tons of reasons why your bookkeeping might be off.

The best thing to do in this situation is to call in an external accounting service to come in and review your documentation and data. Although this can be pricey, it is absolutely the best course of action to take in this situation. If your internal accounting produced some major errors, then it’s time to recruit external help. This will be the best way to pinpoint exactly what happened and what went wrong.

An Important Sale Has Fallen Through

Sometimes, we count our chickens before they’ve hatched. If you were betting a lot on one sale and the deal gets canceled in the eleventh hour, it’s hard to not feel a huge sense of loss and failure. In fact, you might find yourself in serious financial limbo should this occur.

While it’s tempting to feel like the whole world is crumbling around you, the first step is to stay positive. Just because you lost one sale doesn’t mean that your entire business is over. Instead, hit the ground running in trying to find new clients and make a new sale. No business has ever crumbled due to one deal that fell through.

When your business is in crisis or experiences an emergency, it can be easy to give in to negative emotions. However, if you follow these tips, your business can overcome just about any crisis.